Delaware elected leaders to hold in-person town hall as Trump approaches 100 days in office

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Delaware’s congressional delegation, along with Gov. Matt Meyer and Attorney General Kathy Jennings, plan to hear directly from the public during an in-person town hall on Saturday.

The event in Wilmington could garner significant interest from Delawareans as President Donald Trump closes in on 100 volatile days in office.

Rep. Sarah McBride and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester are also hitting their first 100 days in their new roles. McBride is the first transgender woman to be elected to Congress and Blunt Rochester is the first woman and first Black woman Delaware has elected to the Senate. Sen. Chris Coons is now the state’s senior senator after former Sen. Tom Carper retired last year.

As Democrats, state leaders and the congressional delegation have opposed the Trump administration’s recent moves to cut spending, fire government workers, dismantle federal agencies and impose tariffs on foreign goods.

No one has had a more eventful entrance to federal office than McBride, who was almost instantly targeted after her election because of her gender identity. Republican House members barred her from using bathrooms in some federal buildings and have publicly misgendered her. One of those Republicans who has targeted McBride, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, spoke at a Delaware Republican Party fundraiser in January.

McBride said she refuses to give them attention.

“It is a sad indictment that there are politicians anywhere who are more focused on fear mongering and division, rather than finding common ground and addressing serious solutions,” she said. “I don’t think Delawareans are thinking about where someone else goes to the bathroom or what pronouns someone else uses. I’ll continue to keep my focus on what actually keeps Delawareans up at night and that’s the cost of living and that’s building an economy that works for everyone.”

Coons said he’s concerned about some of the discourse happening in today’s politics and on social media.

“I think our country is in a basic fight over whether we are a country that is about cruelty and selfishness or about compassion and inclusion,” he told WHYY’s Avi Wolfman-Arent last month. “This is either a ‘We’re all in this together country,’ or this is a ‘I’m getting mine and the hell with you country,’” he said.

McBride said a handful of House Republicans act like reality TV stars. She said she is focused on finding common ground with reasonable Republicans on legislation aimed at helping her constituents.

“I’ve not only introduced bipartisan bills, but I’ve co-sponsored more than 120 bills this Congress, including 75 bipartisan bills — including 24 bills led by Republicans,” she said. “Because if you put forward a good policy that will help Delaware, I’ll support it.”

Coons said he has been getting complaints from many Delawareans concerned about the security of their personal information in the hands of officials from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as well as the mass firing of federal workers.

McBride said her constituents are worried about high prices, which was also a common complaint during former President Joe Biden’s administration due to rising inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration has levied a flurry of tariffs on many products, leading to fears of even higher prices for consumers. The White House has also sought to freeze federal funding and cut safety net programs, such as Head Start, Meals on Wheels and the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program.

“I hear Delawareans consistently concerned about the cost of living, about the cost of housing and child care and health care,” she said. “I hear from Delawareans who are fearful right now, either they’ve already retired or they’re about to retire, and they’re seeing their 401ks decimated by a self-imposed economic catastrophe by this administration’s reckless and ill-thought out tariff policy.”

Blunt Rochester recently joined McBride and Coons in Wilmington to warn that potential cuts to Medicaid could have a devastating impact on Delawareans. The House GOP budget proposal is seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts, including from the House committee that oversees Medicaid.

“This legislation would strip Medicaid coverage from over 70 million Americans, leaving children, seniors, and people with disabilities to fend for themselves,” she said in a statement earlier this month. “Lastly, it would continue a rampage of firing critical workers that serve the American people day in and day out.”

Blunt Rochester has also criticized the Trump administration for ordering the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and cutting food assistance to states.

Republicans entered this year controlling the House, Senate and the White House. Recent approval numbers for the Democratic Party hover around 37%, according to a March poll, up from 27% in February. Trump’s approval rate has dipped to 42% from 47% when he took office.

Coons said his Democratic party has lost the edge it has had historically in connecting with voters of color, younger voters and those wanting to move upward into the middle class.

“We are seen as an elite coastal party, status quo party, and the status quo party that is defending the establishment rather than the party that’s making our country a country of opportunity and of inclusion and a country we can all be proud of,” he said.

McBride said the Democrats’ unifying message should be one focused not on Trump, but on how his policies are impacting Delawareans and people across the U.S.

“I think that when we elevate the needs of our constituents, when we talk about the needs of Delawareans, regardless of who they voted for in the last election, then we can successfully push back against an administration that is hurting Delawareans and Americans of every background,” she said. “Americans who voted against this president and Americans who voted for this president.”

Delaware has been a party to several lawsuits to restore federal funding to the state, including money for public health grants, libraries, nonprofits and minority-owned businesses.

But a complaint from a Republican state lawmaker could pull $336 million in federal education funding from the state. State Sen. Bryant Richardson has asked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to investigate whether Delaware is violating federal law and an executive order from Trump barring transgender students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The complaint asks the government to pull education funding if the state should “illegally refuse” to comply. Delaware has no known transgender athletes.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.